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I suppose you found this EP back cover from 1960? For a well known musician, he did seem to be a little photophobic 8-)
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The initial print run of The Mandolin - a history is just about sold out. I had resigned myself to the book going out of print when all the copies were sold, but I was approached by a small publisher...

The Benedetto book is the only book available on building archtop guitars and useful for ideas about mandolin family instruments as well.For violins, I have been using Henry Stobel's Violin Making...

There have been numerous reports on luthier discussion forums about difficulties with UV cured finishes. A couple of recurring themes are incompatibility between sealer and top coats from different...

Thank you both for the offer and the link but I was able to see the article in question while I was there with the assistance of a very friendly and helpful librarian. As it turned out, it did not...

At its simplest, all you need is a gramil or something similar. These can be store bought or home made. The Schneider Gramil is good, the Ibex cutter works fine or one can be made from some bits of...

An F style mandolin of Sitka and quilted big-leaf maple. Ebony fretboard and head overlay with the new Schaller tuners and an Allen tailpiece. The other is a 21" scale five course cittern for GDAea...

I have been using .020" x .250" black and white plastic strips from StewMac and second Andrew's scarf join idea. They offer a .040"/1mm thick black strip as well, but the .020" bends easily enough...

Some of the modern plastic binding, like Boltaron, just don't like heat bending in the same way as celluloid. ABS is not bad, but others plastics can be difficult.

Cheers

An email newsletter fro the Fretboard Journal mentioned a new recording by Canadian singer/songwriter Kevin Breit (who I had not previously come across). One interesting thing about this recording is...

It is a Portuguese mandolin, a bandolim in Portuguese. The main drawback to the peacock tuners is that they need loops on both ends and there is a special tool sold in Portuguese music shops to put...

I think this one is still a little too stiff. The free-plate tap pitch was around where I thought it should be, but there is a metallic edge to the sound and I think a strong resonance around the b...

Nice one!. Now, on to number 2... You didn't think you were going to stop at one, did you 8-)

A second prototype for a planned mandolin quartet of two mandolins, mandola and mandocello. The body of this one is a little larger than the first, around 6mm longer and wider as well as a little...

Thank you Patrick. Two of my friends, with around 60 years of mandolin building between them, suggested either carving the slab sawn quit maple thick or applying some sort of stiffening agent.
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The quilted big-leaf back for the mandolin, the rim of which I posted a week or so back. The second pic has had a little water sprayed on. Any suggestions about hardening/stiffening the maple?
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The rim assembly of a new F-5 style mandolin. The oddly shaped tail block is for a pickup socket to the side of the tailpiece.

188629

It is the guillotine model :grin:

After a decade or so of mostly building mandolins, suddenly I have orders for a couple of OMs and a bouzouki. This one was strung up last week and will be heading off to its owner in the next few...

A couple of new mandolins strung up, one for a client, the other an experiment in soundboard carving and bracing. The commissioned mandolin is a 2 point model inspired by the Washburn mandolins of...

I am about to bend sides for an F-5 style mandolin out of some quilted Big-leaf maple I got from Bruce Harvie some years back. I have bent lots of flamed maple, but wondering if there are tricks or...

A new octave mandolin, 22"/56cm scale with a 13"/33cm wide body. It is for a customer who bought a bouzouki 17 years ago and now wants an instrument a little smaller. It seems to have scaled down...

I have always made them the same as I would for a guitar. 18mm at the body end and around 15mm under the nut. Always allow al least 3mm under the truss-rod.

Cheers

James, was that L-5 data ever published? I cannot see any obvious link on the Oberlein Acoustics site.

Thanks

When I was researching mandolin info for The Mandolin, I found a couple of dedicated Beihl collectors in Davenport who had tracked his career through the local newspapers and city records who sent me...